Paleo Diet For Athletes

5 Good Reasons For Athletes To Go Paleo

You would think that a person who is fit, like a well trained athelet, would naturally be extremely healthy as well.

Unfortunately this is not true as athletes are prone to frequently getting colds and other illnesses associated with over training, not to mention injuries.

It therefore follows that athletes would naturally want to be healthy all the time as this would allow them to train more and improve their performance.

This is where the Paleo diet can really help athletes significantly improve their long term health and provide the following benefits;

1. An increased intake of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) which improve muscle development as well as anabolic function.

   

2. Counteracts the weakening of the immune system, ie it strengthens the body’s immune system, which is common in athletes after long or intensive exercise sessions.
3. Increases the ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 (currently 10:1 but around 2:1 in Paleo eaters) which causes a reduction of inflammation in the body – inflammation retards the healing process after training.
   This modern day dietary imbalance in fatty acids, ie 10:1 Omega-6:Omega-3, is a fundamental underlying cause of many chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, many cancers, most inflammatory diseases,diabetes as well as many psychological disturbances.
4. Lowers the body’s levels of acidity and stimulates muscle protein synthesis while reducing the catabolic effect of acidosis on bone & muscle, therefore promoting the body’s strength.
5. The diet is high in trace nutrients of which natural vitamins & minerals are essential for optimal health & proper recovery from training.
   Foods that are rich in these trace nutrients are green, leafy vegetables & seafood.

Get started on the Paleo eating plan with this fantastic guide to Paleo which will show you how to maximize your health & fitness

Paleo Eating Plan For Athletes

Since the days of the caveman the human genome has not undergone any major change which means that from a physiological point of view we still resemble our athletic ancestors from the paleolithic age.

This means that eating a paleolithic diet would be the most natural choice for our bodies as well as the one we would perform best on.

So whilst you could be forgiven for thinking that athletes require a diet high in carbohydrates in order to keep their bodies topped up with energy that comes with eating carbs, new thinking on the nutritional requirements for athletes is that pasta, bread, rice and all the other carbs that athletes used to consume in large quantities is not only unnecessary, but could actually be detrimental to their performance.

If you listen to sports scientists like Professor Tim Noakes, whose book the Lore Of Running promoted a high carb diet for athletes, he has made a complete u-turn on this thinking.

Our Paleolithic ancestors, aka the cavemen who hunted for their food, seemed to have got 55 percent of their daily calories from eating meat and easily covered 15km every day while tracking their prey.

In fact he says you should tear those pages out of his book and replace them with his new views on the benefits of eating a low carb, high fat Paleo styled diet.

This LCHF Paleo diet he maintains is not only much healthier, but also provides one with much more energy and strength – the high fat component of the Paleo diet is a massive source of energy, far more than carbohydrates.

What the Experts Say…

Loren Cordain Ph.D. and world renowned scientist, who is also a leading expert on the Paleolithic diet & a a professor in the health and exercise science department at Colorado State University, presented a breakthrough plan for weight loss and disease prevention without dieting or exercising.

Since then he has teamed up with Joe Friel (founder and president of Ultrafit Associates, LLC, an association of elite endurance coaches, renowned USA triathlon as well as elite cycling & endurance coach) to write The Paleo Diet for Athletes: The Ancient Nutritional Formula for Peak Athletic Performance wherein they show that by eating the foods our bodies are biologically designed to eat, anyone can achieve overall health & fitness as well as dramatically improve their strength and cardiovascular efficiency.

They go on to explain, amongst many other things, why gluten, grains, starches, sugars & refined foods are counter productive to recovery, performance, fitness & health

Their book and views on the Paleo diet has had extraordinary reviews from the medical & nutritional field including that from Jennie Brand-Miller, coauthor of the bestselling Glucose Revolution, who said it was “without a doubt the most nutritious diet on the planet.” as well as from doctors Michael & Mary Dan Eades, authors of Protein Power, who said “We can’t recommend The Paleo Diet highly enough.”

The Paleo diet could extract the best performance possible from your body while allowing you to recover quicker…

To ensure you get all the health & performance benefits from this way of eating you really need to download your guide to Paleo eating here…